Is the phenomenon of multinational firms (MNCs) conducting distributed R&D across emerging markets related to the return migration of engineers and scientists from the U.S. to emerging markets? I hypothesize that local inventors at emerging market R&D centers of MNCs face constraints in securing...

I study whether return migrants and their direct reports facilitate knowledge production and transfer across borders for multinationals. Using unique personnel and patenting data for 1315 inventors at an emerging market R&D center for a Fortune 50 technology firm, I exploit a natural experiment...

We investigate how reforms that ease or restrict human mobility affect global innovation. We leverage a unique dataset merging patent data with exhaustive information on business-related migration reforms that take place in 15 countries over 26 years, and employ a novel event study approach. Our...